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Russian President Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron Tuesday the West must stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and accused Kyiv of not taking talks to end the conflict seriously, the Kremlin said. Accusing Ukrainian forces of committing war crimes and claiming the EU was “ignoring” them, Putin told Macron “the West could help stop […]

The founder of one of Russia’s largest banks has condemned Russia’s business elite for refusing to speak out against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Oleg Tinkov became one of the few influential Russian business owners to protest the war when he denounced the conflict as a “massacre” in an Instagram post on April 19. He later told […]

Russian forces have relaunched their attack on Ukrainian fighters inside the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in the besieged city of Mariupol. Troops began a fresh bombardment of the factory on Tuesday May 3 after accusing Ukrainian fighters of violating a ceasefire agreement. The Ukrainian military said that armoured vehicles and ground troops were also […]

Russia’s Foreign Ministry has accused the Israeli government of supporting a “neo-Nazi regime” in Ukraine. In a text published online Tuesday, officials accused Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid of making “anti-historical statements” which “explained the course of the current Israeli government in supporting the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv.” The statement comes after Lapid criticized his […]

Fire has ripped through a warehouse storing Russian schoolbooks, days after reports that publishers would remove mentions of Ukraine from the nation’s textbooks. Firefighters were called to a warehouse owned by the Prosveshchenie publishing house in Bogorodsky, east of Moscow, at 3 a.m. on Tuesday. The blaze was extinguished just over four hours later, a […]

Two workers were killed at an explosives factory in Russia’s Perm region 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow, local authorities said Monday. “There was a fire at around 20:00 on May 1 at the plastics production site in the Perm Power Plant federal state enterprise,” the regional labor watchdog said in a statement. One employee was […]

Russian pop star Filipp Kirkorov has slammed the editor-in-chief of state-funded broadcaster RT for questioning the sexual orientation of his ex-wife’s current husband, Maxim Galkin, who fled Russia in protest of the war in Ukraine. Observers describe the latest feud between Kirkorov and RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan as signs of cracks within the pro-Putin elite. […]

Russia’s Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov paid an unusual visit to the frontline in Ukraine amid the Russian military’s slow progress to capture eastern territories, The New York Times reported Sunday. “Our working assumption is that he was there because there’s a recognition they haven’t worked out all their […]

Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday slammed his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for alleging Adolf Hitler may have “had Jewish blood” and summoned the Russian ambassador for “clarifications.” Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Israel has sought to keep a delicate balance between the two sides, but remarks by the Russian foreign […]

U.K.-sanctioned Russian businessman Oleg Tinkov said the Kremlin had forced him to sell his stake in a major bank he had founded after he criticized the Ukraine war. Tinkov told The New York Times the Kremlin told the Tinkoff Bank’s senior executives to cut ties with him the day after his explosive April 19 Instagram […]

Dozens of activists, journalists and anti-war protesters have been detained across Russia as the country celebrated May Day, also known as International Workers’ Day, an independent watchdog said Sunday. Police apprehended seven people in Moscow and St. Petersburg each, six people in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk and six others the Urals city of Chelyabinsk, […]

At least two “large explosions” were heard in the early hours of Monday in the Belgorod region 30 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the region’s governor said. “I awoke to two strong explosions,” Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov wrote on the Telegram messaging app without disclosing the location of the blasts. He said there were no injuries […]

Russia is not looking to end its war in Ukraine by Victory Day on May 9, its foreign minister said, as the country looks set to mark the key anniversary under the cloud of a deadly conflict.  Speaking with Italian outlet Mediaset, Sergei Lavrov insisted Moscow would not rush to wrap up its so-called “special […]

Despairing of the economic options in her home country, Marine Khachatryan found work at a flower shop in Moscow’s outskirts in 2020, while her husband got work in construction. But then came the invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in punishing Western sanctions and a crisis in Russia’s economy. “We came here to make money […]

Roughly 100 civilians have been evacuated from the besieged Mariupol steel plant in eastern Ukraine and are heading out of Russian-controlled territory, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday. The announcement came after the UN said a “safe passage operation” was ongoing at Azovstal, where Ukrainian forces say they and hundreds of civilians have been […]

A fire broke out on Sunday at a Russian Defense Ministry site in Belgorod, close to the border with Ukraine, the region’s governor said, injuring one person. “On the the borders of three municipalities — Borisov, Belgorod and the urban district of Yakovlevsky — a fire broke out at one of the Defense Ministry’s facilities,” […]

Dozens of civilians have left a besieged steel plant in the city of Mariupol, Russia said on Sunday, as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi voiced support for Ukraine’s “fight for freedom” during a visit to Kyiv. Russia’s Defense Ministry said a total of 46 civilians left in two groups on Saturday from the area around […]

Russia suggested Sunday that it could seize the Russian-based assets of countries it deems hostile in retaliation for a U.S. proposal to sell off Russian oligarchs’ assets and pay the proceeds to Ukraine. “As far as companies based in Russian territory are concerned whose owners are citizens of hostile countries and where the decision has […]

Two days after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a group of hackers managed to get access to several Russian state-owned television channels and broadcast anti-war videos.  But the attack ended after a few minutes and regular programming resumed.  This type of fleeting hacking operation has been repeated many times in Russia in recent […]

Production of Georgia’s iconic Borjomi mineral water will be suspended as a result of financial difficulties caused by the war in Ukraine, the water’s manufacturer has announced. “The company ‘IDS Borjomi Georgia’ has been in a difficult situation since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine,” the company said in an April 29 statement released to Georgian media. […]

One British and one American citizen have been killed in Ukraine’s war against Russia this week. Scott Sibley, identified as a 36-year-old military veteran by British media, is believed to be the first Briton to die fighting in the conflict. “We can confirm that a British national has been killed in Ukraine,” a Foreign Office […]

Russia’s Central Bank said Friday it was cutting its key interest rate for a second straight time as risks of price rises and financial instability were no longer rising. The Bank of Russia said it was slashing the rate from 17% to 14% from next week, a greater cut than predicted by many analysts. It […]

A Russian businessman who founded the country’s third-largest retail bank has sold his stake in the group to an oligarch close to President Vladimir Putin after criticizing the Ukraine conflict. The Interros company of oligarch Vladimir Potanin announced Thursday it was acquiring a 35% stake TCS, the group that owns Tinkoff Bank. Interros said it had received the go-ahead from […]

The U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Friday that one of its staff had died in a Russian strike on Kyiv during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “Radio Liberty journalist and producer Vera Gyrych died as a result of a Russian missile hitting the house where she lived in Kyiv. The attack took place […]

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has published the KGB’s top secret investigative file of Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot, including his mugshot, it announced Friday. “Documents from Hans Baur’s investigation file are being published for the first time,” the FSB said, adding that his case file was held in the FSB’s Novgorod region branch in northwestern […]

Shootings erupted at two checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian border Friday, regional authorities said as Russia’s military offensive on Ukraine continues to spill into its own territory. “It was a restless morning in the border district of Rylsky,” Kursk region Governor Roman Starovoit said on social media. “Mortars were fired at a checkpoint in the village of Krupets […]

Russia confirmed Friday that it had carried out a “high-precision” missile strike on a rocket plant in Kyiv as the UN chief visited the Ukrainian capital. Thursday’s missile attack during UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ visit ended nearly two weeks of relative calm in Ukraine’s capital. At least one person has been killed and at least […]

displaced population In Photos: Evacuees from Donbas Arrive in Russia Tens of thousands of women, children and elderly have crossed the border into Russia after separatist leaders accused Ukraine of planning to invade.

A Russian court has granted early release to former economic development minister Alexei Ulyukayev after less than five years in jail, Russian news agencies reported Friday. Ulyukayev was found guilty of bribery in December 2017 and sentenced to eight years in prison in a high-profile criminal case that rocked the political elite. The ex-minister was […]

Moscow and St. Petersburg held nighttime World War II victory parade rehearsals late Thursday as Russian forces continued their push to capture territory in eastern Ukraine. Russia marks 77 years since the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany on May 9 with a landmark military parade on Red Square aiming to boost domestic patriotic sentiment and […]

Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s capital late Thursday during a visit by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who decried the “absurdity” of war in the 21st century, as U.S. President Joe Biden asked for $33 billion more to support Kyiv. At least three people were wounded in the strikes in the western part of the city, which […]

Russia has lost its first soldier on home soil since the start of the country’s war with Ukraine, local media reported Thursday. Conscript Nikita Koshelev, 19, died when his base on the Ukrainian border came under bombardment, his friend Kirill Kulikov told news website NN.ru. Koshelev’s relatives in the town of Arzamas in the Russian […]

Ukraine is investigating at least 10 Russian soldiers accused of committing war crimes against civilians while occupying the Kyiv suburb of Bucha last month, the country’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said Thursday. Images of civilians apparently executed in the streets and harrowing accounts of torture emerged from Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs as Russian forces […]

Russian energy giant Gazprom on Thursday announced a soaring net profit for 2021, boosted by high energy prices. “The main factor that affected the financial result was an increase in gas and oil prices,” the state-controlled group said in a statement. “This resulted in an increase in sales and an increase in the cost of purchased gas and oil.” The group […]

Kazakhstan has admonished a pro-Kremlin television presenter after he unleashed a tirade against the ex-Soviet country over its perceived distancing from Moscow since Russian troops invaded Ukraine.  Central Asia’s richest country, Kazakhstan shares a land border with Russia, has a significant ethnic Russian minority and was forced to call in troops from a Russia-led bloc to quell unprecedented unrest in January.  But […]

Russian tech giant Yandex will sell its digital news and blogging products to fellow internet conglomerate VK, the companies announced Thursday. The sale of Yandex.News and Yandex.Zen to VK comes as Yandex, once the jewel of Russia’s rising IT scene, faces an increasingly uncertain future due to Western sanctions and an exodus of Russian IT […]

Some 1,200 Syrian and Russian mercenaries have been pulled out of Libya as Moscow’s protracted invasion of Ukraine begins to place strain on the country’s military, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Unnamed Libyan officials told FT that 1,000 Syrians and 200 Russians from the Wagner Group had been moved from the war-torn North African country in […]

Western countries’ increased supply of military assistance and weaponry to Ukraine endangers the whole of Europe, the Kremlin said Thursday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov’s comments came as British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called on all Western countries to double their military support for Kyiv and start shipping heavy weapons to Ukraine to help the country defend […]

Russia on Thursday raised the alarm over “acts of terrorism” in Moldova’s Moscow-backed breakaway region of Transnistria after separatist authorities reported several attacks there this week.  “We are alarmed by the escalation of tensions in Transnistria,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during her weekly briefing, pointing to reports of shootings and explosions.  “We regard […]

Occupying Russian forces have appointed a new “military-civilian administration” in Ukraine’s southern Kherson region amid pro-Kyiv protests and rocket attacks. Russian soldiers occupied the city of Kherson on the banks of the Dnieper River in early March. Russia’s Defense Ministry said it gained control of the entire Kherson region this week.  Russian troops have dismissed Kherson’s […]

The Russian border region of Belgorod has confirmed using its air defense systems early Thursday, the day after an unexplained fire at a nearby ammunition dump. Regional authorities told state news agencies that late-night explosions heard by residents just 30 kilometers from the Russia-Ukraine border were the work of air defense systems. They provided no further […]

Russia’s war in Ukraine and double-digit inflation drove down real disposable incomes in early 2022, the Rosstat statistics agency reported Wednesday. Real disposable income, a closely tracked indicator of Russian households’ financial wellbeing, calculates the amount residents have left to spend or save after payments. According to Rosstat, Russian households spent 17.1 trillion rubles ($231 […]

Russia’s oil production is on track to drop to an 18-year low this year as Western sanctions and departing foreign oil companies complicate extraction and reduce demand. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters Wednesday that Russian oil output could decline 17% this year. “How sales will be conducted further is difficult to asses now,” Siluanov […]

A handful of hacker groups aligned with the Russian government have carried out hundreds of cyberattacks against Ukraine since Moscow invaded, U.S. tech giant Microsoft said in a report Wednesday. It added that in “hybrid” warfare tactics, Russia often matches cyberattacks with military assaults on the battlefield. “Starting just before the invasion, we have seen […]

President Vladimir Putin warned Wednesday that if any other country intervenes in Moscow’s military operation in Ukraine, Russia will launch a quick-fire military response. Speaking to lawmakers, Putin said that “if anyone sets out to intervene in the current events from the outside and creates unacceptable threats for us that are strategic in nature, they […]

Since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February, the country’s streets have been filled with both anti-war messages and symbols of support for Russian troops. But with the Russian authorities cracking down on anti-war sentiment, some Russians have rushed to clear away anything that could be seen as support for Ukrainian forces. Sometimes farcically, this has included […]

A Russian journalist and activist has been jailed ahead of her trial on accusations of spreading “fake” news about the war in Ukraine in a social media post, the state-run RIA Novosti news agency reported Wednesday. Maria Ponomarenko, a journalist for the RusNews outlet, was charged over a March 17 Telegram post that said Russian […]

Russia exchanged jailed ex-U.S. Marine Trevor Reed for Russian pilot Konstantin Yaroshenko, who was in an American prison on drug smuggling charges, the Foreign Ministry in Moscow said Wednesday. The surprise prisoner swap comes as Moscow and Washington’s diplomatic relations crumble over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The exchange took place “as a result of a […]

From her California home, quantum computer scientist Maria Vyushkova uses open-source information to track how many Russian soldiers from the Siberian republic of Buryatia have been killed in the invasion of Ukraine.  An ethnic Buryat born in Russia and member of the anti-war Free Buryatia Foundation, Vyushkova analyzes social media posts, official statements and media […]

The Netherlands said it has stopped issuing visas to Russian nationals from Wednesday following a slew of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions during Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Dutch Embassy in Moscow told Russian media it still plans to issue humanitarian visas and temporary residence permits. The Netherlands is a member of the European Union and the Schengen […]

Russia’s energy giant Gazprom said Wednesday it had stopped all gas supplies to Poland and highly dependent Bulgaria after not receiving payment in rubles from the two EU members. President Vladimir Putin last month said Russia will only accept payment for deliveries in its national currency, with buyers required to set up ruble accounts or […]

The interior ministry of Transnistria, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Moldova bordering Ukraine, said Wednesday that shots were fired at a village housing a Russian arms depot after drones flew over from Ukraine. This came after the unrecognized region has reported a series of explosions that it called “terrorist attacks,” raising fears of a spillover […]